Major step towards a sustainable cotton market
With major stakeholders, IDH is coordinating the development of an ambitious program around sustainable (better) cotton. An important milestone in this process is a meeting initiated by major cotton retailers IKEA, M&S, H&M and Levi's in Colombo (Sri Lanka) early February. They have invited their major supplying manufacturers from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan to discuss how to integrate Better Cotton standards into their supply chains. David Rosenberg, Sustainability Advisor of Ecom: ‘This is the right and necessary process to move forward. Other major players in this program are ICCO, WWF, Solidaridad, Rabobank, ECOM and the BCI secretariat.
The Colombo meeting promises to be an important stepping stone towards a mainstream sustainable cotton commodity market that we aim to create in 2015.
The program is in its development phase. After two meetings last year – one at the Rabobank and one at Ikea – a strong consortium is being formed that has the capacity to transform the market.
Next to these four retailers/brands - IKEA, M&S, H&M and Levi’s – which consume several percent of total world market demand, other partners in the program are so far: Rabobank, Ecom, ICCO, Solidaridad and WWF. Through creating market demand in the North, development programs are organized in the South, with training and support of cotton farmers that want to grow sustainable cotton.
Major problems in cotton production are water and pesticide use, and labor conditions, including the problem of child labor.
Important target of the program is to produce around 1 million tons of sustainable cotton per year. Expectations are that once that amount is reached – on a total of 30 M tons worldwide – that will be sufficient to create a real market for sustainable cotton.
The program aims to start projects in India and Pakistan this year, and China, West-Africa and Brazil in latter years. Rules and regulations for growing sustainable cotton are (amongst others): Decrease the use of pesticides, better protection of employees and responsible water management.
Read more about the IDH cotton program.
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